The anatomy of the grid

A teacher salary schedule is a table with two axes and a set of rules underneath.

  • Steps run down the side. A step usually represents a year of credited service. You typically move down one step per year until the column ends.
  • Lanes or columns run across the top. Each represents a level of education: a bachelor's, a bachelor's plus a number of units, a master's, a master's plus units, a doctorate. Districts call them lanes, columns, classes, levels or tracks.
  • +units notation appears in the column headings. "BA+30" means 30 units beyond the bachelor's degree, counted under the district's rules. The number is only meaningful once you know which unit it uses: semester or quarter.
  • Longevity covers the years after the last regular step. Many schedules add separate longevity steps or increments at set years of service, sometimes shown as extra rows or as a footnote.
  • Stipends are usually on separate schedules: extra duties, coaching, hard-to-fill assignments, National Board certification and, in some districts, advanced degrees. In Texas, for instance, the state minimum schedule under TEC §21.402 is based on years only, and pay above it comes from district schedules and stipends.

Underneath sit the footnotes and contract articles. They define what a unit is, which units count, when movement happens and who is grandfathered. Read them before you read the numbers.

How to find your cell

  1. Confirm the schedule year. Use the schedule in effect for the year you are planning, not last year's PDF.
  2. Find your column. Start from your highest degree, then count the post-degree units the district has accepted on your record. HR can tell you your current placement.
  3. Find your step. This depends on credited years of service, which may differ from total years taught if the district caps credit for prior experience.
  4. Read the footnotes for your column. Check the unit type, any hire-date conditions and any column that is closed to new entrants.
  5. Find the next column. Note the threshold, then work out how many more accepted units you need.

Moving one column across is the change you control. That is the subject of lane change, explained.

Three real formats

Schedules look different from district to district even when the logic is the same. Three published examples, described without pay figures:

Numbered lanes, counted in quarter credits: Seattle

Seattle Public Schools' 2025-26 certificated schedule uses numbered lanes: 100 for a BA, 200 for BA+22.5, 300 for BA+45, 400 for BA+45 with a master's, 500 for BA+90, 600 for BA+90 with a master's, and so on up to 900 (BA+155 with a master's) and 906 (PhD). A footnote states that "The salary schedule is measured in quarter credits". Another notes that "Lane 700 is a grandfathered only lane". See the Washington guide.

Roman-numeral columns in 16-credit steps: Clark County

Clark County School District in Nevada labels its licensed columns I through XI. Column I is a BA, II is BA+16, III is BA+32, IV is a master's, V is MA+16, VI is MA+32, VII is MA+48 and VIII is a PhD, with further columns beyond. The increments are 16 credits, not the 15 or 30 common elsewhere. See the Nevada guide.

Letter codes with hire-date columns: Williamson County

Williamson County Schools in Tennessee uses compact codes: BSNH, BS, BS10, BS20, MA, MA10, MA20, MA30, EDS and PHD/EDD. Some columns are shaded gray and apply to employees hired on or after July 1, 2014, so two teachers with the same transcript can read different columns depending on when they were hired.

Statewide grids exist too. Hawaii's HIDOE schedule runs from Class II to Class VIII, with each reclassification step equal to the prior class plus 15 credits. See the Hawaii guide.

Common traps

  • Quarter vs. semester. Seattle counts in quarter credits. Billings, Montana's 2022-23 schedule footnote reads: "Credits are quarter credits (semester credits x 1.5 = quarter credits)." Thirty semester units are 45 quarter units on such a schedule.
  • Closed or grandfathered columns. A column on the grid may be closed to anyone not already in it, as Seattle's Lane 700 is.
  • Hire-date conditions. As in Williamson County, columns can depend on your hire date.
  • Units earned before the bachelor's. Jordan School District in Utah counts educational attainment as "hours earned beyond and after Bachelor's Degree and original Teaching license." Units earned before then do not move you.
  • Equivalency columns. Some districts offer a master's-equivalent column. Montgomery County, Maryland sets its MA/MEQ lane at a minimum of 30 post-baccalaureate credits, at least 15 of them at the graduate level.
  • State figures that are not pay schedules. Some states publish minimum schedules, as Texas and South Carolina do, and districts pay at or above them. Maine's EPS salary matrices are a state funding-formula assumption, not a district pay schedule.
  • Old PDFs. Search results often surface prior years. Check the effective date on the document.
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Where to look. The schedule is usually on the district HR or payroll page. The rules for moving columns are in the negotiated agreement, often in an article on salary or professional growth. Read both.

For which units a district will accept toward a column, see units that count. To compare how state rules differ, start at the state guides.

Sources

Last reviewed 2026-11-03.